Big New York queues for water, bread and beerNew York (AFP) Oct 28, 2012 -
Doug Barotra managed to carry more than 50 cans of beer out of his local supermarket after waiting 45 minutes to get to the cashier. He is expecting the worst from Hurricane Sandy.

"As long as the power doesn't go, I think I'll survive," Barotra said as he struggled with his load on New York's Third Avenue back to his Midtown apartment. "I live on the 18th floor, if it gets bad I'm just going to stay there for the next three days."

Long lines formed at supermarkets on cities in New York and other major east coast cities for bottles of water, bread, fresh foods, batteries and anything that could help last out the so-called "Frankenstorm" heading for the northeast United States.

At the Trader Joe stores in New York's Upper West Side and on Union Square, the queues wound out of the supermarket entrances and staff let customers in a handful at a time.

There was a lot of groaning in the queues.

"By the time we get inside, there may not be much left for us," said art student Lisa Nichols, in the long Union Square queue. "I am going to check out what my friends have managed to stock."

New York city's subways and bus lines start shutting down at 7:00 pm Sunday, leaving New Yorkers pretty much confined to their immediate neighborhoods.

New York's Battery Park City and East Village were among at-risk zones where mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered a mandatory evacuation. About 375,000 people lived in the affected seafront zones in the five boroughs under Bloomberg's jurisdiction.

Seventy-two schools and other buildings were opened up as emergency shelters. Bloomberg said that people in the evacuation zones should be ready to rough it on a friend's floor for a couple of days.

Many inhabitants said they were going to ignore the evacuation order, however.

Richard Bogart filled sandbags and set up a wall across the driveway to his home in Coney Island. "I have heard the order, but when Irene hit last year the cellar was flooded and I have to be here in case something happens."

Many of his neighbors followed the same tactic.

Hurricane Sandy was on target to collide with a cold front bearing down from the north, creating what meteorologists have named "Frankenstorm" which threatens floods, high winds and even heavy snow across many eastern states.

The storm surge from Hurricane Irene last year was between four and five feet (1.2 and 1.5 meters). This time experts are predicting a surge twice as high.

New York authorities have ordered 1,100 national guard troops into the state, including 200 who will patrol Manhattan streets and 300 in threatened Long Island districts.

Bloomberg said people who ignored the evacuation order would not be arrested but condemned them as "selfish" individuals because they would have to be rescued if the worst predictions come true.

Much of the eastern United States was in lockdown mode Monday awaiting the arrival of a hurricane dubbed "Frankenstorm" that threatened to wreak havoc on the area with storm surges, driving rain and devastating winds.

New York authorities ordered the evacuation Sunday of 375,000 people from low-lying coastal areas as the imminent arrival of Hurricane Sandy, which strengthened overnight and forced the entire eastern seaboard to out its normal life on hold.

More than 7,400 flights out of east coast hubs were canceled and ground transport was due to grind to a halt on as non-essential government staff were told not to show up for work.

Amtrak suspended all bus and train services up and down the coast. Subway services, buses and commuter trains were also shut down in New York, Philadelphia and Washington.

And the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and the futures markets in Chicago said they will be closed on Monday, and possibly even on Tuesday.

The United Nations canceled its meetings at its New York headquarters, Broadway theaters and Carnegie Hall shut their doors, and classes were canceled at schools in Baltimore, Boston and Washington as well as a host of smaller towns.

Hundreds of thousands of residents in low-lying coastal areas were under orders to clear out and an AFP reporter said the beach resort of Rehoboth in Delaware was a ghost town as the deadline passed for mandatory evacuation.

Mindful of Hurricane Katrina, which flooded ill-prepared New Orleans in 2005, killed more than 1,800 people and left an indelible mark on George W. Bush's presidency, President Barack Obama took no chances, ordering emergency agencies to strand ready and asking people to take every possible precaution.

"My first message is to all people across the eastern seaboard, mid-Atlantic going north. You need to take this very seriously," Obama said, urging 50 million Americans across the region to heed the advice of local authorities.

The president, who spoke after being briefed at the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), cautioned that Sandy was a slow-moving storm that certain areas would take a long time to recover from.

"The time for preparing and talking is about over," FEMA administrator Craig Fugate warned. "People need to be acting now."

Obama signed emergency declarations to free up federal disaster funds for New York state, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, the District of Columbia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

As some defiant New Yorkers stocked up on beer and laughed off evacuation orders saying they intended to ride out the storm, the National Weather Service office in neighboring New Jersey held no punches in its warning to residents.

"If you are reluctant to evacuate, and you know someone who rode out the '62 storm on the Barrier Islands, ask them if they could do it again," a bulletin said, referring to the notorious Ash Wednesday storm of 1962.

"If you are reluctant, think about your loved ones, think about the emergency responders who will be unable to reach you when you make the panicked phone call to be rescued, think about the rescue/recovery teams who will rescue you if you are injured or recover your remains if you do not survive."

Fearful residents from Washington to New York to Boston queued for emergency provisions like bottled water and batteries in long lines that stretched out the doors of supermarkets.

-- A 'nor-easter on steroids' --

--------------------------------

After laying waste to parts of the Caribbean, where it claimed 66 lives, most of them in Cuba and Haiti, Hurricane Sandy was predicted to come crashing ashore in New Jersey and Delaware late Monday or early Tuesday.

The storm strengthened overnight, reaching hurricane force winds upwards of 85 miles per hour (140 kilometers) per hour, up from 75 miles (120 kilometers) an hour late Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said.

It was now about 385 miles (615 kilometers) south southeast of New York early Monday and beginning to turn west.

Winds stretched more than 485 miles (780 kilometers) from its eye, the center pointed out, which means everywhere from South Carolina to southern Canada was due to be affected.

"The system is so large that I would say millions of people are at least in areas that have some chance of experiencing either flash flooding or river flooding," National Hurricane Center director Rick Knabb warned.

Forecasters cautioned that the massive storm was far larger and more dangerous than last year's devastating Hurricane Irene that claimed 47 lives and caused an estimated $15 billion in damage.

Current projections show Sandy barreling north on a collision course with two other weather systems that would send it hooking into the Delaware or New Jersey coast as one of the worst storms on record.

Weather experts say the collision could create a super-charged storm bringing floods, high winds and even heavy snow across a swath of eastern states and as far inland as Ohio.

"Sandy will be more like a large nor'easter on steroids," warned Alex Sosnowski, a senior meteorologist for Accuweather.com, as experts predicted widespread damage, mass power outages for days and disastrous flooding.

Forecasters warned that New York Harbor and the Long Island Sound could see seawater surges of up to 11 feet (more than three meters) above normal levels.

Television images from North Carolina's Outer Banks, a chain of low lying islands, showed wild surf and torrential rain hitting the coast, while residents in Virginia were already reporting coastal flooding.

Governors have declared states of emergency in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and the US capital Washington.

US officials brace as Hurricane Sandy moves northMiami (AFP) Oct 28, 2012
US emergency officials braced for the potentially massive impact of a so-called "Frankenstorm" Sunday as Hurricane Sandy lumbered north in the Atlantic Ocean, poised to hit the eastern seaboard with torrential rains and gale-force winds.
The superstorm was expected to make landfall somewhere between Virginia and Massachusetts early Tuesday, possibly causing chaos during the frenzied last day ... read more

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2012 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency.
All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement